Literacy in Social Studies: The Influence of Cognitive and Motivational Practices on the Reading Comprehension of English Learners and Non-English Learners

ABSTRACTWe examined the impact of cognitive and motivation practices within a social studies literacy intervention (United States History for Engaged Reading [USHER]) on Grade 6 English learners’ (ELs) and non-ELs’ history reading comprehension, cognitive strategy use, reading self-efficacy, and reading engagement. We used a switching replications research design with 2 groups and 2 instructional sequences (i.e., Sequence A and Sequence B) and collected cognitive and motivational measures from all students before and after each sequence. We used propensity score matching to establish groups with baseline equivalence. Findings indicated that USHER contributed to both ELs’ and non-ELs’ increases in history reading comprehension, cognitive strategy use, and reading engagement in social studies.